Copious historical details cannot mask a pointlessly slow pace. Might have worked better as a novella.
A reformed rake has to win the trust of a skeptical lady before he can woo her in this first of a traditional Regency trilogy.
Lady Adeline Wivenly is enjoying her first season in London when she attracts the attention of handsome flirt Frederick, Lord Littleton. “Frits” Littleton’s bloodline, wealth, and title make him a catch, but he is known as a rake. Worse, last year, he jilted Lady Dorie Calthorp, one of Adeline’s closest friends, after leading her on all season long. Frits knows he made a mistake with Dorie, but now he's ready to settle down, and Adeline has caught his fancy. Adeline avoids him as much as politeness allows, in deference to Dorie’s feelings, so Frits finds creative ways to cross her path during the usual social activities of the ton—carriage rides, plays, and balls. As Frits’ basic decency reveals itself, Adeline begins to question Dorie’s perspective. When she overhears another lady scheming to trap Frits into marriage, Adeline decides to warn him, throwing them together even more. In the meantime, Adeline is the target of an unscrupulous suitor who will stop at nothing to win her. Quinn (The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, 2019, etc.) creates a richly detailed traditional Regency world whose social rules dictate much of the characterizations and plot. Frits and Adeline are likable enough—they bond over their love of country life, especially animal husbandry—but their relationship moves at a glacial pace. Worse, they seem to have little effect on one another. While Adeline’s inexperience explains some of her naiveté, she is frustratingly bad at understanding basic human psychology. So many characters are crowded into the storyline that readers may need a chart to sort them out. A late and unwelcome incursion of politics and violence adds no excitement to the romance.
Copious historical details cannot mask a pointlessly slow pace. Might have worked better as a novella.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4967-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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